What do you want? As a parish, as an individual, as a follower of Christ, as a companion along the way, as a child of God…?
I can tell you what I want – I want All Saints to feed the hungry with a food-pantry like St. Gregory of Nyssa in San Francisco, or with bread like the Bread Church in Liverpool in England, or with a meal like the Rainbow Kitchen in our own Victoria. I want All Saints to sponsor refugees, as many as we possibly can like Holy Trinity in downtown Toronto. I want All Saints to house the homeless – advocating for those who have no homes, helping those who live in sub-standard housing, participating in shelter programs for those at risk – imagine what we could do with our own site? We could make part of our property affordable housing? I want All Saints to connect with all the lonely people, the rejected people, the afraid people, the marginalized people, the persecuted people, the weak people, all people, and build a wonderfully chaotic community that is full of bumps and wrinkles and messes and chaos. I want All Saints to come into loads and loads of money so that we can give it away to those who need it most. I want All Saints to explore liturgy and music and to enter more deeply in to the mystery of the Eucharist and see how it connects us to feeding people, clothing people, housing people, and reaching out to risk more of ourselves and thus gain more by God’s abundant gifts of love being shared with us when we make ourselves vulnerable. I want All Saints to enter more deply into prayer and listen for the things that God is telling us to do. I want All Saints to be led by the Holy Spirit and to do things that we never thought we could possibly do! I want All Saints not to be good Christians but to be followers of Christ, emulating with the whole of our beings the actions of Jesus, the way he treated people. I want All Saints to have relationships with all of our neighbours and to learn from them, and to have them change and transform us. I want All Saints to welcome strangers as though we were welcoming angels or even God Godself. I want All Saints to be working at building up the kingdom of heaven right here and right now. This is what I want. My problem is I cannot do all that by myself. So….. so what?
…..but you….. what do you want?
The peace of Christ which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his son Jesus Christ, and the blessing of God almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be with you and remain with you this day, and forever. Amen.
amen!!